Sunday, 30 December 2012

I chose Soft Cell's Tainted Love for Nigel's CJ as I had an immediate vision of a tattered heart from love that had been taken from it's new and pure state to a battered and tainted state. I used paint and gesso and heated it to within an inch of it's life until it was bubbling and bursting and hopefully it's achieved the look I was after.

Close up you can see the dimension and texture created by the heated paint. The background stamp is Tim Holtz from Mixed Media. Hope it's ok Nigel :) - Sian

Tuesday, 11 December 2012

A few days late (ok 10 !) but I finally sent this off to Sian today. I didn't know what to choose at first from Nigel's list, there were a few I liked but just didn't know how to interpret them. In the end I went for this one as I sort of had an idea for the inside in my head. I inked and painted the inside pages to represent sunset colours, I added a birdcage with broken bars for the bird to fly out - and being a completely 'Freebird' he flies off into the opposite direction to the flock. I didn't really know what I was doing for the front then decided to acknowledge Nigel's time away from home when he was stationed in Germany and when he first discovered CB radio (which is where he gets his 'handle' from :) Hope it's ok !

Sunday, 9 December 2012

I sometimes struggle to get to Post Offices, and bless her Sarah did a grand job of chasing me...so I decided to set to work immediately on the two journals I received from Virginia - Pat's and Sian's -

so this means I have a whole month and a second month in which to post - or I may mail on both to Sherry on the 2nd Jan...then again, life might happen and who knows when things will actually get done? I do know Sarah is a perfect Hostess and things will be kept Tickety Boo.

Lots of images for Pat's ( will you still love me tomorrow) page.

I heard Graham Bonnet sing this at Monsters of Rock...When I worked on this piece I 'heard' a different story, the obvious one- reminiscent of the transience of one night's love, gone by morning, but remembered forever- But also thoughts of how we may become insecure about the feelings of our lovers as we age,

will you still love me tomorrow? - direct to page watercolour portrait of an aged lover with collage added

the last image is of the pages I did for Sian's journal, I shall be surprised if she doesn't know which track I chose!!!! As per her request the style is journalling so there are more pages and many hidden extras that you won't see until you get it...

Wednesday, 5 December 2012

Sign up by: January 7th 2013
Minimum number of participants: 3
No maximum number
First posting: January 14th
Second and final posting: January 31st

by Randel Plowman

Hi everyone

I think it's time for us to at least start thinking about a new collaboration, don't you?

I know we are all crazy busy in the run up to Christmas, so this one doesn't require you to actually do anything until January, but I thought I'd get the sign ups up and running now

This is going to be a bit of a stretch for those of us who love our inks and paints and rubber stamps ...... a PURE collage challenge!

by Robert Farkas

All you are allowed to use are found imagery and text - from magazines, books, postcards, junk mail etc. (Commercial patterned papers eg scrapbook papers are ok too) - plus scissors/craft knife and glue or gel medium to stick stuff down or make image transfers. Oh and a bit of cardboard to stick the whole thing on.

That's it.

Are you up for the challenge?

This is a great exercise to help us focus on composition, and on our neat cutting-out skills :)

by Hailey Gaiser

Sign ups are below - there is no limit on the number of people taking part. Feel free to put yourself on the list more than once if you would like to make and receive extra cards.

Once sign ups are complete I will close the loop so that everyone is posting in a circle, with the last person to sign up posting back to the first person on the list.

by Alexandre Coll

Then each of us will make TWO partly collaged postcards, around 7" x 5" in size. Just the backgrounds at this stage.

These are to be posted to the next person on the list on or before Monday January 14th 2013

The recipient finishes the collaged postcards (so, this is a two-stage collaboration), and sends one (naked, no envelope, as mail art) to the person immediately after them in the list, and the other to the next person along.

The deadline for this second posting date is January 31st 2013

by Laura Redburn

I know that's a bit complicated, let me illustrate with an example - so if we have 4 sign ups:

1. Andy
2. Barry
3. Charlie
and 4. Danny

Then Andy will make two postcard bases and collage the backgrounds, and send both of these in an envelope to Barry by Jan 14th.

Barry will complete both the postcards and send one (no envelope) to Charlie, and the other (no envelope) to Danny, both by Jan 31st.

by Heather Gabel

Meanwhile, Charlie will be finishing off Barry's cards and sending them to Danny and Andy; Danny will post the cards he finished off to Andy and Barry, and so on.

I hope that makes sense :D

The upshot is that everyone will make two first stages and two finished postcards, and will also receive two fab pieces of collaged mail art in the post to keep.

by Grycja Erde

So - without any further ado, please edit your name onto the list below if you would like to play!

(sign up deadline Monday 7th January 2013)

Please update on the list below when you have posted and received cards:

1. Sarah (Flo) - posted stage 1 to Vicki on 11th Jan, received from Jean 15th Jan - posted completed postcards to Vicki and Nigel 21/1 - received finished postcards from Jean and Virginia, all done2. Vicki - received backgrounds 12th Jan. Stage 1 posted to Nigel 15th Jan. Rec'd Finished from Sarah 22 Jan. Posted both finished to Nigel & Sonja. Received from Jean and Sarah3. Nigel - Received 16/01/13. Posted to Sonja 12/01/13 Received from Sarah 25/01/13 Completed cards posted 28/01 Received from Vicki 08/02/134. Sonja - posted backgrounds to Lou 11/1/13. Nigel's backgrounds arrived 15/1/13. Posted cards to Louise and Jez 24/1/13. Completed card from Nigel 29/1/13. Completed card from Vicki 6/2/13.5. Louise (poshscot) POSTED 11/1/13 received backgrounds 12/1/13 Posted finished postcards. Rec'd both postcards :)6. Jez (Butterfly Mind) POSTED 11/1/13, RECEIVED FROM LOUISE 12/1/13 Posted completed cards to Pat and Irene 17/1/13 - snow may delay delivery! Received from Sonja 28/1/137. Pat posted to Irene 10 Jan received from Jez 12 Jan Received from Jez 21/1 posted to Irene and Jazz 22nd Jan received from Lou (poshcot) 23rd Jan8.Ireneposted to Jas 11 Jan received from Pat 12 Jan has received completed postcards from Pat and Lou hee-hee xx9. Jazz - has received Irene's backgrounds, but has been unwell so hasn't yet been able to post her own to Bex, hoping to post 19/110. Rebecca (Bex) - Posted backgrounds to Carmen 10th January Received backgrounds from Jas and completed postcard from Jas 30 January. Posted finished cards to carmen and Sam 5 February.11. Carmen (whoopidoo) - Posted to Sam on 16/01/2003 (Sorry I'm late Sam) And also received from bex today (16th)12.Sam (Luna) - Posted backgrounds to Virginia.Recieved backgrounds from Carmen. Posted completed postcards, one to Jean and one to Virginia on 24th Jan 2013 Recieved finished postcards from Rebecca on 7.2.13 and from Carmen on 22.02.1313. Virginia - Received backgrounds from Sam Posted two backgrounds to Jean 15th Jan (sorry I was poorly sick yesterday) and sent both completed collages to Jean and Sarah respectively today as well! 14. 3dJean - Posted backgrounds to Flo recieved backgrounds from Virginia , posted finished postacrd to Flo and Vicki 21st jan

For the first posting, everyone is to send to the person immediately below them in the list, except Jean who posts to me (Sarah)Please email your recipient for their postal address ASAP if you don't already have it

Sunday, 2 December 2012

When I first saw Pam/Psychodiva's list of songs for her fabric-based CJ, I was pretty much sure I would end up choosing either good old Bo Rap, Smooth Criminal, or the Dixie Chicks.

But when I popped the CD on, it was actually this song - Hollow Talk by the Choir of Young Believers - that jumped out at me:

It is the theme song to the Scandinavian crime series 'The Bridge', which about a zillion people have recommended to me, and which I have finally got around to ordering so I can see if it's as great as they all say....

The series starts with a female body being found, in two parts, at the centre of the bridge which joins Denmark to Sweden - half in Denmark's jurisdiction and half in Sweden's - and so that's the rather gory inspiration I have taken for my entry:

The background's all blue, as I was originally going to paint a picture of the actual bridge on there, so the blue would have represented the sea and sky:

But in the end I decided that would make the whole thing a bit too busy, especially given that I wanted to fit some of the lyrics from the song on there too.

The dead lady was embroidered from my original sketch:

Not having seen the programme yet I have no idea if the actual body looked anything like this, am taking a bit of artistic licence :)

I really enjoy working in fabric, which is just as well, as I have Sherry's journal coming next!

Oh - and here's a couple more bits, matching sign in tag:

And here's the back of my entry, I liked all the geometric shapes it made - I wanted to colour them all in, would have been fun, but Pam says she is going to back everything once her CJ comes home so there wouldn't have been much point really

Oh - and I almost forgot ..... the Collabor-ART twist!

Pam hasn't done her own entry in the CJ yet, so I couldn't add anything there, but I refused to be deprived of my god given collabor-artist's right to meddle :)

So I added a little dash of bead soup to Pam's lush red and gold cover: